TD Asset Management Inc Raises Stock Holdings in Fortis $FTS

TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in Fortis (NYSE:FTS) by 4.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,474,508 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 603,772 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Fortis were worth $642,076,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis during the first quarter worth approximately $864,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fortis by 286.7% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,106 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 820 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fortis in the first quarter valued at about $393,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortis by 151.9% during the first quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 440,370 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $20,062,000 after acquiring an additional 265,570 shares during the period. Finally, JCIC Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Fortis by 5.7% during the first quarter. JCIC Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,377 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FTS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a report on Monday, October 6th. Desjardins raised shares of Fortis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Fortis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Finally, National Bankshares restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Fortis in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $72.00.

Fortis Stock Down 0.3%

FTS stock opened at $50.87 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.71 billion, a PE ratio of 20.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.94 and a beta of 0.50. Fortis has a 12 month low of $40.32 and a 12 month high of $51.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.47.

Fortis (NYSE:FTS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.91 billion. Fortis had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 7.24%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.67 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Fortis will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fortis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a $0.4448 dividend. This is a boost from Fortis’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. This represents a $1.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. Fortis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 73.25%.

About Fortis

Fortis Inc operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 447,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 103,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,408 megawatts (MW), including 68 MW of solar capacity and 250 MV of wind capacity.